Thursday, March 6, 2014

"Let it go", "let it go"....oh I'm not speaking about the lyrics to Idina Menzel's song from Disney's "Frozen"....I'm talking about LET IT GO....of all the stuff that all of us hang onto. At least that is what I thought about when I first heard this song.

What's Stuffed In Your Drawers And Cupboards That Your Can Let Go Of ?

I thought about the plastic bags of socks I have stuffed into my drawers. I'm talking about so many T-shirts accumulated over the years that I could truly cut them
into strips and make enough rag rugs to last a century. I'm talking about closets filled with so many old blankets that the entire town could sleep over in a power outage.

De-Junking Your Junk

I'm not done yet. Let it go...let it go.....how about purging spices in my kitchen closet that have no fragrance whatsoever. Or isn't it time to toss the containers of Matzah meal that should have been let go five Passover's ago? While I am on that subject......when you have lived in the same house for so many decades.....you probably have to go no further than your very own kitchen to find all the collectibles you could ever want!

Set Yourself Free...Let It Go...Let It Go

Moses commanded by G-d said to Pharaoh..."let my people go"..... and I say to you.....you will be set free if "you let it go" .......if you let all your old socks, old T-shirts, old blankets go......LET IT GO...LET IT GO!

Readers please share your confessions about what you need to let go of......junk stuff that is!

Photos taken at Never Say Goodbye Antiques, Middletown, CT

C. Dianne Zweig is the author of Hot Kitchen & Home Collectibles of the 30s, 40s, 50s and Hot Cottage Collectibles for Vintage Style Homes. She is also the Editor of I Antique Online an actively growing internet based resource community for people who buy, sell or collect antiques, collectibles and art. You can find Dianne’s fabulous retro and vintage kitchen, home and cottage collectibles at The Collinsville Antiques Company of New Hartford, CT, a 22,000 feet antique emporium with an in-house retro café.
To read more articles by C. Dianne Zweig click on this link:
C. Dianne Zweig’s Blog Kitsch ‘n Stuff
Email me at dianne@cdiannezweig.com
Visit my website, CDianneZweig.com
Dianne is a member of:
The American Society of Journalists and Authors
The Society of Professional Journalists

When we listed our house in NH for sale a few years ago, I "decluttered" and "depersonalized" like they tell you on HGTV by putting everything into storage. It was very calming to have a house empty of all but the basics. To be honest, I didn't want the stuff back! But of course, once we moved into our new house, I had to clean out all those storage units and bring the stuff home. Been trying to get rid of it all ever since!

As someone who collects old items and is creative, crafty and artistic, I have a real problem letting go since my creative side will have ideas for repurposing. Here's an example: last week, found a fantastic fabric scrap, would look great on a cork board to hang in my classroom. (Teachers are MASTERS of repurposing). I have an old cork board, the cork is tired, but I have some sheets of just cork, that can fit onto the old cork...but not quite enough to cover, so now, this idea requires me to find/buy, just a small amount of cork. Then, should I paint the frame (yes), but what color? Also, when you have projects and ideas, finding your tools (like my Exacto holder, knew where the blades were...). Am I creating a jumbled enough picture? Extra socks? Well, I have a book about making sock creatures, the list just goes on and on...sigh. Let me go, must go and take my meds for ADD, at least I can identify with the students who share that quality. Creative and scattered!

I'm hopeless :) ..it's in my genes! When we moved my grandmother in 1977, she had every yogurt cup with a lid that she had ever bought, in case we had left overs from a family party (we did throw those away) and she was saving all the old coke,pepsi and sprite metal bottle caps to make a pathway in her garden. My mother saved her grandfathers bathrobe and my fathers bathrobe he had as a sick kid and finally had the material made into teddy bears. Those teddy bears are family heirlooms! I still have all the buttons and lace cut off of old clothes from an aunt that died in 1960. The family was sure I'd love those because I collect dolls and would put them to good use. 40 years later they're still in a drawer. I'm better now then when I was teaching--I used to save toilet paper tubes and milk cartons for projects but now I save things for the garden.